The home run is the single most influential and exciting play in MLB, and in baseball in general.
Fans, naturally, are attentive to potential records being broken, or feats regarding the long ball being achieved.
At the moment, with a little over a month left to play in the regular season calendar, there are two exciting races to pay attention to: New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge and his quest to break the franchise home run record; and St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols chasing 700.
Roger Maris hit 61 dingers in 1961, the highest in Yankees history over a single season.
Judge, with 46, needs 16 to be in sole possession of the record.
On the other hand; Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron, and Babe Ruth are the only players in the history of the game to hit at least 700 round-trippers.
Pujols, 42, is at 692: he has stated this will be the last season of his career.
“Which is more likely to happen this year: Aaron Judge breaks the AL record with his 62nd HR or Albert Pujols reaches 700 homers?” MLB tweeted.
Which is more likely to happen this year: Aaron Judge breaks the AL record with his 62nd HR or Albert Pujols reaches 700 homers? #ULTRAMoment pic.twitter.com/J6sPWXVsuv
— MLB (@MLB) August 22, 2022
The Power Question
It’s certainly a fascinating question.
Judge needs 16 for his record and Pujols just eight to reach 700.
However, both are extremely unlikely at this point: hitting 16 home runs in a span of around five or six weeks is incredibly tough to do, making Judge’s odds long, at best.
He plays every day, so he has a chance.
Pujols, meanwhile, is just eight homers away from his own feat, but unlike Judge, he doesn’t play every day.
At this point of his career, Pujols is a liability against right-handed pitchers, and since the majority of MLB hurlers are righties, his playing time is limited.
He remains an asset against lefties, though, so while his chances are slim, too, they are not zero.
We would say both are unlikely, but not by any means impossible.